


New Beginnings (Wanted or Not)

by Settiai



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Gen, Introspection, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-28
Updated: 2016-05-28
Packaged: 2018-06-10 03:28:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6937840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Settiai/pseuds/Settiai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The humans said that Andraste herself had chosen her to save all of Thedas. If it was true, Siân Cadash had several choice words for Andraste if they ever came face-to-face again. Including one that started with "f", rhymed with "duck", and was followed shortly after by "you."</p>
            </blockquote>





	New Beginnings (Wanted or Not)

Siân Cadash woke up to the sound of screams echoing in her ears.

It took her longer than it should have to realize that there wasn't anyone else in the room with her, as her eyes darted from corner to corner of the small cabin that she had called home for the past few nights. She could still hear the cries in her mind, sounding so very real, even though she knew deep down that they weren't. They were just in her head, remnants of the nightmares that had plagued her sleep every night since she'd woken up after the Conclave.

She was a dwarf, damn it. She wasn't supposed to have _dreams_.

Not for the first time, Siân wished that she could go back in time and make it so that she never agreed to spy on the Conclave. Her life might not have been all that classy, but she'd been happy with it, thank you very much. She'd never asked for any of this.

It would have been easier if she'd just told the humans "no" when they asked her to join their damn Inquisition. If she was honest with herself, she'd actually been tempted. But even she wasn't _that_ selfish, not when the entirety of Thedas was at stake.

And wasn't that a terrifying thought?

The humans said that Andraste herself had chosen her to save all of Thedas. If it was true, Siân had several choice words for Andraste if they ever came face-to-face again. Including one that started with "f", rhymed with "duck", and was followed shortly after by "you." She'd never particularly cared about the Andrastian religion one way or the other, but if this whole mess had done anything it had turned that indifference into full-out antipathy.

Siân clutched her blanket tightly in what she was already starting to think of as her good hand, her gaze darting down to focus on the eerie green glow being emitted from the other. Whatever it was, it was clearly the reason behind her sudden inability to sleep soundly through the night. Solas had said as much, in a voice that had been much too cheerful about the whole mess for her tastes. He hadn't even pretended not to be intrigued by the fact that a dwarf, of all the races on Thedas, suddenly had a visible tie to the Fade.

Magic. She'd never understood it, and now it was in her very blood in a way that shouldn't even be possible.

Grumbling under her breath, Siân loosened her grip on the blanket, letting it fall down to settle in her lap. The fire was low, the faint glow coming from it enough to help keep the chill at bay but not enough to truly see with.

The past few nights had made her very aware that she wasn't going to fall back asleep anytime soon, if she did at all. There wasn't any point in staying in bed. At the very least, she could try to make a dent in the papers that the ambassador had given her, information on the Hinterlands that would hopefully help during her upcoming trip there. Knowledge was power, after all. If her time in the Carta had taught her anything, it was that.

Of course, that didn't mean she had to like it.

"I hate my life," Siân grumbled under her breath as she pushed the sheets and blanket off of her so that she could roll off of the bed. It was much too large for her, clearly designed with humans in mind, but if she had to choose between it or the floor, she'd choose the ill-fitting bed any time. For sleeping, at least.

The way her life had been going lately, Siân had almost expected there to be some type of reply out of midair to her angry grumbling. It said a lot about her current state that she was actually expecting the impossible to happen.

Goosebumps appeared on her arms as she made her way to the fire and poked at it, building it back up with a few smaller pieces of wood. Then she walked over to the window, angling herself under it so that she could clearly see out to get a better idea of the time.

One of the moons was low in the sky, but it was still clearly visible. It hadn't disappeared over the horizon yet, which meant it was still leaning more toward "night" than "morning".

Siân was used to getting by on less sleep than a lot of people, but even she had to admit this was starting to get tiresome. Pun not intended, although she should try to remember to mention it to Varric once the sun came up. Someone deserved a little bit of amusement, at least.

Shaking her head, she grabbed the stack of papers sitting on the desk and dropped them on the floor beside the fire. Grabbing the blanket off of her bed, she folded it over a few times before letting it fall to the floor as well so that she could lower herself onto it. The desk, like the bed, had clearly been made with humans in mind, and she'd be damned if she gave herself a backache just because the humans assumed Thedas revolved around them. The floor wasn't exactly comfortable, but the blanket underneath her helped provide a little bit of cushioning.

Siân grabbed the top sheet of paper from the stack, her gaze drifting quickly over it. She was skimming more than reading, a talent she had picked up when she was still a girl, back when they'd expected her to start doing work for the Carta but she'd still been too young to go out on missions. There was a trick to it: reading just enough to get the gist of what was going on, looking for key words that might help prevent things from going to the Void.

She hated it now as much as she had back then.

The green light being emitted from her hand flickered, drawing Siân's gaze down to it. It still ached, even now, but it was nothing like it had been when she had first woken up. Back then, it had felt as if her very blood was on fire, a steady agony that had made her understand for the first time why a trapped animal was perfectly willing to gnaw off its own limb. Now it felt more like a pulled muscle, an annoyance but not much else.

It scared the shit out of her, not that she'd willingly admit it out loud.

Shaking her head, Siân forced her wandering mind back to the task at hand. She had work to do once the sun rose, another day of helping put Haven back into order.

Her eyes drifted back down toward her hand as it flickered again, a twinge of slightly sharper pain shooting through her hand and up her arm. Then she sighed.

Whoever was behind the damn thing, Andraste or the Maker or the Ancestors or the elven gods or the fucking Archdemon itself, they had a sense of humor. She had to give them that much.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me over on Tumblr. (http://settiai.tumblr.com/)


End file.
